


our hearts, like doors

by somehowunbroken



Category: Hockey RPF, Women's Hockey RPF
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-19 01:45:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14226402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken
Summary: It doesn't take long for Julie and Caro to take their perfect little family skating.





	our hearts, like doors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shmorgas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shmorgas/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Truly Blessed](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12883284) by [shmorgas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shmorgas/pseuds/shmorgas). 



> hi shmorgas! your fic was the absolute cutest thing, and i hope you're happy with this little scene here.
> 
> thanks to T, A, and L for reading this through for me!
> 
> title is from ["north" by sleeping at last](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byHSQoemFvI), which is about building a family and a home.

"Do we have her booties?" Caro asks, peeking into the diaper bag that Julie had carefully packed before they left the house.

"Yeah, they're in the front pouch," Julie replies, bending over Liv's car seat. She's completely conked out; there's nothing better than a car ride to get her snoring. Julie grins as she carefully starts unclipping everything keeping Liv secure in her seat.

"What about her mittens?" Caro asks. Julie glances over; Caro is still poking around in the diaper bag.

Julie picks Liv up, moving carefully so she doesn't jostle awake. Liv's a really, really good baby, but her one failing is that she takes after her mama when it comes to being woken up before she's good and ready. Liv and Caro make the same grumpy face if they don't get all the sleep they think they need, and while it's cute on both of them, Liv doesn't have Caro's grace in handling it just yet, and Julie's pretty sure that none of them wants today to have a screaming baby meltdown at high noon.

"They're in the pockets of her coat," Julie says as Liv snuffles and settles against her chest. "Her earmuffs are in the big pouch with the diapers. I couldn't zip the little pouch up with them in there, so they went in the big part."

"Okay," Caro says, double-checking as Julie talks. She looks up. "What about--"

Julie laughs a little. "Are you _nervous_?"

Caro huffs a little, but there's a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "She won't like it if she's cold."

"She'll get used to it," Julie says confidently. Liv absolutely isn't a fan of the cold right now; Caro says it's because she'd been in a nice, warm environment for nine months and isn't liking the fact that she's been relocated. Julie can sympathize with her daughter, but she really hopes that Liv gets less fussy about it being under whatever her ideal temperature is, because otherwise the dreams Julie and Caro had quietly, excitedly shared while staring at ultrasound photos are going to be pretty hard to accomplish.

"I hope," Caro mutters, but she zips the diaper bag back up and gets out of the car. "No time like the present to get her started, eh?"

Julie smiles and heads for the doors of the practice rink. She peeks down at Liv, but she's still blissfully asleep, tiny hands curled into little fists, pushing at her cheeks. It's been a few weeks, but Julie's still convinced there's never been anything as precious as Liv in the whole history of the world.

There's no official practice today, but Pou is in the locker room, because of course Pou is in the locker room. She doesn't live at the rink, as much as the team loves to tease her about it, but she's there more than the rest of them are by leaps and bounds. It's probably not a coincidence that she's here today; Julie had dropped her own hints that they were bringing Liv by to skate, and she's sure that Caro had mentioned it too.

"Liv," Pou says with a smile when they all walk in, making a beeline for Julie. "How are you, ma choupette?"

"Sleeping," Julie replies, tilting her arms so Pou can see. "She's gonna be cranky in a few minutes when we start putting her warm stuff on, probably."

"But still cute," Pou predicts. "Here, give her to me while you get your skates on. She won't be grumpy with Tatie Marie."

Caro snickers. "You hope," she says, sitting down in her stall.

It doesn't take them long to get themselves ready; neither of them has to get in pads or uniforms, and with how long they've been skating, it doesn't exactly take them forever to lace up. Liv is still snoring gently in Pou's arms when they finish, and Caro goes diaper bag-diving again for Liv's things while Julie stands and walks over to retrieve her baby.

"I'll take pictures for you," Pou says, smiling at them brilliantly. "That way you can both just focus on her."

"Pou, you're the best," Julie declares, wiggling her finger gently against the side of Liv's fist. She's got a pretty good instinct for grabbing, and there's a chance it'll help her ease her way from sleeping to waking up without the melodramatics. It's not a _great_ chance, but it's worth trying.

It doesn't take long to get Liv into her skating gear, mostly because she doesn't wake up enough to fight them about it. Caro slips her mittens on her hands, then her booties over the two pairs of socks she's already wearing; they wrangle her into a sleep sack, and then carefully put her arms into her coat and a hat on her head. Julie grabs Liv's blanket and wraps her back up when they're done, and then she inspects their work.

"Uh," Caro says. "She's… she's in there, right?"

Pou lets out a hysterical little giggle, and when they look up at her, she has a hand clamped over her mouth and is laughing silently. "You made a baby ball," she manages. "She can't possibly be cold in there. Can she breathe?"

"Of course she can breathe," Julie scoffs, but she looks back down to make sure Liv's face is still peeking out and that they haven't wrapped her up too tightly. "You'll be happy when she's not yelling."

"Sure, yes," Pou says, still laughing. She waves them towards the door. "Go skate with your blanket pile so I can take photos and swear in twenty years that yes, she really was in there."

"Just wait," Caro mutters, lifting Liv out of Julie's arms. "Someday you will have one, and then we'll laugh at you this much."

"We'll see," Pou says cheerily. "Let's see how she likes the ice."

Liv blinks sleepily up at Julie when she peeks into the mountain of clothes, and Julie smiles down at her. "Hi, princess," she says quietly. "Ready to see where your moms work?"

"One of the places," Caro says, adjusting the blanket on top. "Hopefully by the time you're old enough to understand all of this, women's hockey players will be paid a living wage and we can all laugh about what lengths we went to for the game, but for now… yes. One of the places we work."

Julie holds the bench door open as Caro steps carefully out, propping Liv up against her chest so she can look around. They skate slowly, making a wide lap around the rink, then going around again when Liv doesn't protest. She's not fawning over the idea of skating or anything, but she's less than a month old. Julie's taking the whole "not crying, not throwing up" thing as a pretty positive sign, honestly.

"Again?" Caro murmurs as they approach the bench again.

"Let me hold her this time," Julie says, turning and taking Liv back. She blinks up at Julie like she's not totally sure what's going on. "Hey, baby, what do you think? Pretty neat, huh?"

Liv blows a spit bubble, looking betrayed when it pops on her face. Julie laughs and shifts Liv around so she can wipe it off with the edge of a sleeve.

"That sounds like a good answer to me," Caro says, and when Julie looks up, Caro is smiling down at them sweetly, fondly. Julie leans up and kisses her, firm but quick, Liv safe and warm and happy between them, and she thinks _yes, perfect_.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Our Hearts, Like Doors](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17683331) by [Annapods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annapods)




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